


Powerless Hakurei Tales 09.5:  Shoot the Bullet

by Carmichael_Micaalus



Series: Powerless Hakurei Tales [6]
Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 19:13:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmichael_Micaalus/pseuds/Carmichael_Micaalus
Summary: Crow Tengu Mayhem!  While Aya goes on a photo frenzy, Mima and Tewi... talk about the past.......Intense!





	Powerless Hakurei Tales 09.5:  Shoot the Bullet

Shoot The Bullet

 

“So…”  Tewi Inaba sighed, leaning against the edge of the well.  Ever since her meeting with the Yamaxanadu, the bunny had begun to travel with her companion to the Hakurei Shrine every once and awhile.  It was still an ordeal which she preferred not to go through, but at the same time, the bunny youkai had lived long enough to understand that enemies could become allies, unlikely as they might seem.  “What made you change your mind?”

Mima swept the shrine grounds, though it was clear her heart was not in the task.  Tewi’s interruption gave her the opportunity to pause in her unwanted labor. She looked towards the rest of the courtyard where the others resided.  Near the shrine itself Reisen and Meiling practiced tai chi; the two seemed to be hitting it off after her niece introduced them to one another.

Along the side sat Letty Whiterock and Cirno, both enjoying the shade generated by Rumia.  Wriggle Nightbug and Medicine Melancholy, on the other hand, seemed to be handling the summer heat to a much better degree, chasing after one another.  Mima could hear Sakuya and Ruukoto inside at the kitchen, handling the food for the unexpected gathering. She knew somewhere in the living quarters were her daughter and the other two magicians, working on a solution to the newest problem Gensokyo faced.

“The rancor finally started to leave my body.”  She answered. She stared at the stone tiles for a moment, lost in thought.  Her eyes returned to the bunny. “Did either of them tell you how I became a lich?”

Tewi shrugged; she could feel her skin crawl under Mima’s gaze.  “Reimu didn’t want to say much, as I guess it deals with others we know…”  She let out a laugh. “Granted, that kind of narrows down who’s involved, but… I didn’t tell her that.”

Mima chuckled, returning to her sweeping.

“But what she did tell me is her clan had something to do with why you ended up like you are… or rather, were.”

“Yes… I was planning to do something like the puppeteer; become a magician.  Unfortunately, the Hakurei clan sent a bunch of their neophytes try and stop the process.  They were… more successful than I’d have preferred.”

She sighed, resting her hands and chin on the end of the broom.  “The spells were already in the process of the change, but the spell circles were destroyed and the reagents spoiled; so instead of infusing my body with a mixture of celestial and infernal mana, my soul was getting ripped out of my body, probably to be flung to some far plane.  So… I improvised.”

Tewi’s brow creased.  “Improvised?”

“I won’t get into the technical details, mostly because I don’t remember them, and I know magic crafting isn’t really your ‘thing’, but let’s just say it’s a lot easier to become something else with a load of freshly killed bodies.”  She sighed. “I wasn’t too keen on it, but… less so than dying, and I was angry enough at the time to not care about the ones who tried to kill me.”

“I see.”

“I’m not trying to say that was _just_ of me to do such a thing.  Indeed, a number of yama tried to tell me I should have just died, as it really was my own hubris that did me in.”  She gave Tewi a flat look. “I’m sure you can guess how well I took that at the time.”

“Nn… no comment.”

The spectre’s face split into a wide grin as she made another valiant attempt at sweeping.

“Anyway, going back to your question, one day after I freed myself from the seal… I felt nothing.  No anger, no vitriol… just static. So… I just sat there. It’s… hard to say if I even _thought_ at the time.”

“What caused that?”

“My guess is… probably how I became an ‘evil spirit’.  Generally when you become some sort of spirit for immortality, you use a strong emotion for your pillar, for lack of better word.  It’s what you base your un-life around. It’s what keeps you stable… which, of course, is fucking hilarious given how unstable emotions are.”

Once again, the sweeping came to a stop.

“So… when I awoke, and my anger was gone… I think what I ended up doing is retooling the ensorcelments within my seal, so I no longer had to rely on my anger.  Or at least, not as much.” She looked at Tewi once more; the bunny could see the disappointment in her eyes. “It still flares up from time to time.”

Tewi watched as the lich turned to the shrine once more.  A smile slowly graced her face before she turned back, continuing the arduous effort of sweeping the same three square feet.

“But… a little after that is when Marisa came into my life.”

“I'll admit I was curious about what made you take an apprentice; I'd never seen you work with another before.”

“Have you asked her?”

Mima began to grin as she watched Tewi’s bluntness and survival instinct get into a brawl.

“It's okay, you can be honest.”

“I… _generally_ try to avoid bringing up subjects which involve you with the others if I can, magister.”

The lich cackled.

“Fair enough~”

“...granted,” the bunny coughed, “if we're already _on_ the subject, of course…”

Giving up all pretense of work, Mima moved over and rested against the edge of the well.  She stared at the ground as she gathered her thoughts.

“Marisa had lived in the town with her parents; her dad ran some sort of second-hand store like Rinnosuke.  Apparently he had some sort of grudge against magic users. She wanted to be a magician.” She looked over at Tewi; the bunny could see the anger start to smolder in her eyes.  “He threw her out. It was winter. She was five.”

Looking away, she sighed.  “...I’d been awake for maybe about two decades.  Not my ‘staring at a wall’ awake, but ‘capable of thinking’ awake.  Even that was debatable, though. I saw things, I recognized them, but… my mind was still full of static.  More often than not, I sent out just my barest of shadows; not even visible to the naked eye by most. I think I was just… relearning.  I observed, but hardly interacted with anything. That’s when I found her.”

Waving a hand, a darkened snow-covered forest appeared, with a small redheaded girl curled in a ball, shivering madly.  Working around the medical branch of Eientei enough, Tewi recognized the signs of hypothermia setting in. The girl slowly raised her head, looking up at an appearing image of Mima.

“She must have already had one foot in the grave to have seen me.  She just stared before finally saying-”

“A-a-are you a m-m-magician-n-n?”  The young Marisa asked.

“I am, child.”  The shade responded.

“P-p-please… t-t-teach m-m-me ma-ma-magic…”

The shade shook her head.  “You are not long for this world.  You are fated to die soon.”

“Th-th-then y-y-you won’t h-h-have to t-teach me f-f-f-or long…!”

Tewi found herself smiling.  “...that sounds like her.”

Mima smiled warmly while the shade stared at the girl in shock.  A laugh escaped her lips. A few more followed.

“Well…” She shade started, her normal tone of speaking returning as she reached towards Marisa.  Tewi could see other forms swirl into the illusion, causing the form to gain coherency. “Fate’s a crock of shit, anyway.  Take my hand… and forget about your past. _I_ will show you the greatness you deserve.”

Marisa reached a violently shaking hand out, and clasped her hand.  The shade lifted the girl high, signs of chilblain and frostbite evident over her exposed skin before Mima wrapped her in the cloak, whisking her away.

“H-how did she survive that?”

“Through my knowledge of necromancy.”  The scene shifted to the two in a cave, Marisa laying on the floor as Mima inspected her.  “I dabbled a bit in healing, but mostly what I knew was for self-repair… and it had been well over a millennia since any of _that_ was applicable to me.  However, a lot of people forget that most necromancy has a foundation built upon staving _off_ death and seeking resurrection.  I couldn’t heal her in the standard sense, but I could make it harder for death to claim her… and nudge out where it had gained a foothold in her.”

Tewi watched the two in fascination.  She could tell by the surroundings time was passing as colour returned to the tiny girl’s extremities.

“Having someone to care for helped wake me up.”  Mima nodded as the image of her helped Marisa stand up.  “Having someone to talk to… to teach… to interact with…” The two illusions flashed through different periods of time, writing scrolls, practicing spells, and eventually sparring with magic.  “I… I… she made me feel like I did when I was a human. I found my passion again. During that time, it also made me see Gensokyo was close to falling.”

With Marisa clad in purple robes and Mima in her classic midnight blue, the two traveled through the sky.  “It was kind of funny to me, in a sick sense. The whole reason I had become a magician was to wait for that very moment, for Gensokyo to fall so I could make something better suited.  But because of what had been done to me, I was no longer prepared for that. I mean, hell, I couldn’t even remember half of what I had planned to _do_ at that point.”  She let out an irritated sigh.

“So I came up with a new plan:  ditch this place and head to an outer plane.  But before I could do that, I needed my phylactery.”

Tewi tilted her head.  “Your what?”

Mima blinked before smiling.  “Sorry, the thing that houses my soul; big stone seal.”

“Huh.”

“It was at the Hakurei Shrine.  Since the clan constantly sealed me, it had ended up there.  Guess they were too afraid to break it, and… in their defense, it is _spectacularly_ boobytrapped.  But either way, I needed to have that with me if I was going to be leaving here.  So I took Marisa with me to the shrine. It was honestly an incredibly dangerous thing to do; I knew anyone seen associating with me would be marked for death by them, but… she wanted to prove herself, and I had contingencies set for if anything that could happen.”

She paused in her story as she turned towards the torii; Keine and Reimu passed under as they approached the shrine, finished with their shopping in the town.  The shrine maiden smiled and waved to the two.

“Anything… but that.”  The lich smiled. Her eyebrows raised at seeing the crowd of people behind her niece.  “Oh dear.”

The Scarlet sisters huddled under a parasol as Youmu helped carry groceries.  Chen immediately took off and tackled Wriggle at breakneck speeds as Reimu pattered over to her aunt.

“We’re back, auntie!”  She beamed. "We found more people, too!”

“You there, spirit!”  Remilia demanded, trying her best to look imposing as her sister clung to her to say out of the sunlight.  “What are you doing about that perverted Tengu?!”

“Well.  Mostly-”

“Hello, Magister Mima!”  Flandre smiled.

“Good morning, dear!”  She turned her attention back to Remilia.  “Mostly what I’m doing is sitting on my ass and talking to Tewi.”

“That is unaccepta- Flan, don’t cling so much- unacceptable!”

The spectre shrugged.  “Sorry, Reimu shot down my idea.”

“We’re not going to zombify Miss Aya!”  Reimu huffed.

“Now hold on, shrine maiden,” Remilia held up a hand, her eyes on Mima, “let’s hear her out, now…”

“Hands are tied.  At any rate, Marisa, Alice and Patchouli are working on a solution right now.”

“Morning Magister, morning, Miss Tewi.”  Youmu nodded as she approached. “Does anyone know what Miss Shameimaru is up to at least?  She went so far as to interrupt Master’s date with Lady Fujiwara as well.”

“She accosted me and my poor sister!”  Remilia exclaimed. “Just what does she think she’s doing?!”

“What she’s doing-” Yukari’s voice filled the air as a gap in spacetime opened next to them, “-is making me consider turning a blind eye towards Mima’s plan.”  The sage of Gensokyo popped out of the top of the gap while Ran landed out the bottom. Curling the ends of the gap into armrests, Yukari sat down, glancing towards Chen before looking back at the others.  “She hit our house as well.”

“I think…” The lich sighed, looking towards the torii once more, “Aya is biting off more than she can chew with this one.”

The others glance to see the ferryman Komachi Onozuka and the High Judge of Paradise Shiki Eiki approach the group.  Komachi gave a lazy wave with her free hand. Reimu bowed.

“Well met, Grand Justice, Miss Onozuka.”

“Well met, shrine maiden.”  The yamaxanadu gave a nod, taking the others in.  “One of yours from Gensokyo has been causing trouble along the shores of Higan…”

“Let me guess:”  Mima held up a hand.  “The crow tengu.”

“Correct.”  She nodded. The spectre sighed as Reimu figited.

“We’re workin’ on it.  Sadly, don’t know _why_ she’s doing it, but…”

The group paused as they could hear squabbling approaching from the stairs.  Heading towards the shrine were Mokou and Kaguya, bickering loud enough for the entire shrine to hear.  Behind them, seemingly oblivious to the fight a few feet in front, were Eirin and Yuyuko. The ghost princess gave a tired wave to Youmu as they moved towards the shrine itself.

“Hell’s bells, Aya…”  Mima shook her head and sighed.  “Piss off all of Gensokyo, why don’t you…”

There was a commotion from the shrine as the door opened and the three magicians came out, all holding various objects.  Approaching the shrine grounds clearing, Patchouli spread out a large tarp with intricate spell circles drawn upon it. Alice and Marisa staged the reagents in their locations, with a doll in the center of it.

“Work it out, kids?”  Mima called. Her daughter smiled and gave a thumbs up.

“According to Patche’s predictions, our window should be opening soon.”

A light mist began to creep over the shrine as two of the three looked skyward.  Snapping her pocket watch shut, the purple-haired magician nodded. The three held out a spell card over the circle before touching them to their foreheads.

“Hitscan Sign:  Non-directional Master Spark Doll!”

Prismatic light shot out of the designs as the doll was shot into the air.  A light pinging sound filled the air as it slowly rotated.

“Target Locked.  Executing Spell: Who’s The Fastest Now, Bitch?”

The telltale hum of the Master Spark filled the air many times over as a field of light shot out from all directions.  As the hum died down, an explosion could be heard far off in the distance.

“AyaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA **…!** ”  The crow tengu crashed unceremoniously onto the stone tiles of the shrine grounds.

“Hm!”  Alice smiled at the other two.  “Triple Tech success!”

“Hey… Aya.”  Marisa smiled down at the reporter.  “Sorry, needed to talk to ya.”

“Might wanna wait your turn, kids…”  Mima called out, holding the shrine maiden back.

“Who is at the top of the line?”  Patchouli inquired, already stepping away.  ‘Though her mind was inquisitive, she knew better than to wait for an answer.

“That… I think that’s a very unfair thing to do, Miss Kirisame…” Aya muttered as she pushed herself up.  She paused as she noticed everyone standing away from her.

The mist began to coalesce.

“A-at any rate, I should-”

A massive iron club slammed down into the ground next to the tengu, sending a shower of stone shrapnel everywhere.  Suika Ibuki, larger than the shrine itself, bared her fangs at Aya. The reporter began to shake as the oni began to growl, spittle falling to the ground.

“M-m-madam Ibuki!”  She grinned nervously.  Quick as lightning, Suika’s massive hamfist wrapped around the crow.

“WHAT.  DO YOU THINK.   **YOU’RE DOING, TENGU?!** ”  Suika’s voice shook the ground as she squeezed.   “I AM HUNGOVER AND YOU’RE KEEPING ME FROM SLEEPING IT OFF WITH THAT FUCKING CAMERA OF YOURS!  KNOCK. **THAT SHIT. _OFF!!!_** ”

“O… okay…!”  The crow tengu squeaked.  Winding back, Suika threw Aya at the ground before shrinking to her standard height.

“Gods _dammit_ , I need a drink…”

 

* * *

 

“So… why were you doing that, Miss Shameimaru?”  Reimu asked from the custody of Alice’s arms. Marisa had forbade her from assisting in patching up Aya on the terms of “she don’t deserve it for pissin’ off all of Gensokyo and then some, yo.”

“W-well,” The crow tengu grinned sheepishly, flinching every time Suika paced by.  It’s… a secret, Miss Hakurei.”

“Hey, Suika?”  Hourai called out.  The oni’s club tapped Aya’s shoulder, nearly hitting Reisen.

“The kid asked-”

“Argh, watch it-!”

“-you a question, bird.”

Alice walked the shrine maiden closer.  “Miss Aya, this secret of yours has upset a lot of people today, and you even targeted people outside Gensokyo as well for this!  It’s okay to have secrets, but when they start causing problems like this, you need to let others know.”

The reporter sighed.  “It’s… something the Young Miss Inaba said-erk!”  She winced as a bandage was suddenly pulled tight.

“Hey, do _not_ try to pin this shit on me.”  Reisen hissed. Mima leaned close to Tewi.

“Does that make you the Elder Miss Inaba, then?”

Grinning, the bunny let out a grunt.  “No, she generally refers to me as the Native Miss Inaba.  Sounds classier to her, I guess.”

“N-no, I’m not trying to blame you!  I’m referring to your conversation with Lady Kazami in the Garden of the Sun, about copying spell cards!”

Blinking a few times, Reisen gripped her forehead and sighed.  “You were taking pictures of our spell cards to try and copy them, weren’t you?”

“W-well, I wanted to try and make a primer for an experiment on it.”  Aya became animated as she began to explain. “I figured if we had plenty of visual aids on a card we wanted to attempt to copy, then that might make it possible to-”

“You horrid little corvid!”  Remilia exclaimed, stomping up to Aya; her sister continued to cling to her side.  “That’s why you accosted my sister?! Did it ever occur to you to ask first?!”

“Well… I mean… I was probably going to before publication?”

“Miss Aya!”  Reimu gasped.

Mima sighed as she watched the bickering increase.  Marisa stepped in as Remilia’s parasol cracked against the tengu’s head, once again narrowly missing the rabbit providing treatment.  As she continued to berate the troublemaker, Remilia turned the parasol, keeping the damaged section from spilling sunlight on her sister.

“So…” Tewi started, keeping her voice low as to not alert the crowd of people.  “What made you stay with the Hakurei?”

The lich smiled as she watched her niece flail her arms, still in the puppeteer’s custody.  The developing fight began to fizzle from the shrine maiden’s words and tears.

“Every time I encountered the Hakurei clan before, it made my blood boil.”  Mima whispered. “When I saw her for the first time, that didn’t happen. I’m not sure if it’s because the shrine lost its god, or if it’s because of the changes I’ve made in myself… or maybe both.  But either way, when I had seen the Hakurei Clan had been reduced to, a… a single child with no power…” She sighed.

“How frightened was she when she met you?”

She smiled.  “Not at all, actually.  When she first saw us approaching, she ran inside; we figured she was getting ready to attack, you know?  Instead, she came back out with tea and crackers for us, and asked if we’d like to stay for lunch. As we talked, Marisa… _confided_ in me that she didn’t seem to think Reimu was from the same Hakurei clan that had given me trouble.  I’ll admit even I’d have had some doubts, had I not cast some divinations to be sure. Once I realized the shrine was empty… the condition of Gensokyo made sense.”

With the other’s attention on the impending resolution of the incident, Mima motioned around the shrine.  “When it comes to checking on the outer barrier, the shrine is basically the best point to do it from. I had Marisa distract Reimu while I ran some tests and located my phylactery; it gave me a much better idea of how bad Gensokyo was… it also caused the two of us to realize Reimu was trying to protect the realm all by herself.  She felt she had to, even though she was only about 11 at the time and had no power. Marisa asked if we should help her… and I agreed to.”

“Been here ever since?”

“Yep.”  She watched her niece talking to Aya and the crowd.  “She… makes choices which upset me from time to time, but… it’s always because she’s trying her hardest, and she never shies away from the responsibility of those choices.”

With the crow’s medical needs met, Reisen excused herself from the group and approached Alice, still keeping the shrine maiden in place.  The two looked down at the shrine maiden before looking at one another.

“I HAVE UNDERGONE THE TRIAL OF RENDERING MEDICAL AID IN THE FIELD OF FIRE AND HAVE EMERGED VICTORIOUS.”  Reisen intoned, gesturing bombastically.  Tewi and Mima both arched an eyebrow. “I NOW ASK OF YOU TO SURRENDER PAYMENT AS PROMISED.”

“One thing I will say,”  The bunny grimaced, watching the scene unfold before her, “Reimu’s company has brought out her sense of humor more than ever before.”

“YOU HAVE INDEED DONE WELL, SER INABA.”  Alice responded in a similar tone.  Holding her hands out, the puppeteer lifted the shrine maiden on the strings she used to control her dolls.  “AND SO YOU SHALL BE REWARDED HANDSOMELY:  I ENTRUST UNTO YOU: THE SHRINE MAIDEN OF HAKUREI.”

Tewi covered her face and sighed.  “This fucking place sometimes…!”

“BUT BE WARNED, SER INABA:  SHOULD THE SHRINE MAIDEN BE RETURNED WITH WOUNDS OF BATTLE OR MARKS OF SCUFF, YOUR DEPOSIT SHALL BE CAST INTO THE VOID, NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN.”

“I SHALL CONSIDER MYSELF WARNED.”  Reisen nodded solemnly as the girl was lowered into her arms.  “Hey kid, how’s it going?”

“Hi Miss Reisen!  I’m doing good today!”

“Were you expecting that?”  Mima asked as Alice stood next to her, joining the two in watching the others.  She grinned.

“Nah, surprised me a bit there, actually.”

“Good improv, then.”

“Mm, part of being a magician and a puppeteer, I suppose.”

“As ridiculous as that was to watch, thanks for indulging her.”  Tewi sighed once more.

“I haven’t heard her crack too many jokes, so I thought it’d be best to run with it.”  The puppeteer smiled. The bunny nodded.

“Yeah, she’ll start getting like that when the Doc gets a little… demanding on time for things that aren’t super important.”  She shook her head. “She’ll be like ‘Udongein, next I need you to file these reports’, and then we’ll hear ‘THE HOLY DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN ENSCONCED, PROTECTED FROM ALL.  I AM READY FOR MY NEXT TASK, KING EURYSTHEUS.’  Then the Doc gets all snippy, and I’m just thinking ‘who the fuck says ensconced, anyway?’”

The two chuckled as the crowd began to disperse into groups once more, the incident over.

“Well… either way, I’m glad you two have started to come to the shrine more often; we all appreciate it.”

“Mm.”  Tewi nodded.  “It’s… helping her.  That’s enough of a reason.”

They watched the commander walk back towards Meiling with Reimu in tow.  Volume levels began to spike around the shrine as more and more bottles of alcohol were opened.  Once again, Gensokyo was at peace.


End file.
